Happy Jeep Safari...or I mean Easter!!

So here in Moab, Easter is not celebrated with baskets, eggs, and bunnies, at least not by the majority of the Moab population and it's 1000,000+ tourists. It is celebrated with jeeps, four-wheelers, insanely high lift-kits, and alot of testosterone. So Tiera, Jared, the Kids, and me decided to go check out the displays and free stuff!! Aunt Tiera had here heart set on winning the free jeep and the kids just wanted the free posters. Thank goodness they have cheaper taste. In true Aunt Tiera fashion we found a photo op. Aren't we cute!! Brigham must have been off with Jared ( I hope). It was a ton of fun and was nice to have Tiera to ourselves all weekend!! We have more real Easter pics but they will have to go on later!! Oh by the way, we are moving hence the short blog and will probably be a while til the next!! Happy Easter and Jeep Safari!!

Have you had your Leprechaun Milk today????

Happy St. Pattty's Day to all!! As you can imagine this is a big holiday in our house!! Jared loves all things Irish and so do we. Although there was much dispute over what we would have for breakfast on this lucky day....Jared wanted the traditional Bangers and Eggs and I wanted something everyone else could stomach....I won. We ate just what the leprechauns do!! We had "irish green" french toast, sausage "patties", and leprechaun milk! Jared wanted to know who was going to milk the leprechaun. I told him not to worry we had some "leprechaun drops" in the pantry!! It was fun and the kids are now on rainbow look-out so that their dad can drive them to the end of the rainbow!! We could certainly use the gold at the end. The kids have planned many ways that they will catch the leprechaun!! Who would not want a pot o' gold!! Have a great St. Patrick's Day and don't forget to drink your leprechaun milk.........it does a leprechaun good!! :)

Precious Moment!

I had to share a special experience that Kaitlynn has had over the last few days and also I have to write it down or I will forget like I always do. Kaitlynn has been having trouble at school with a little girl who is very much a bully and a brat (I am just a little protective). It started at the beginning of the year with her kicking Kaitlynn in the shin under her desk when the teacher was not looking, calling her names, laughing at her on the bus, at the bus stop, and at recess. This girl is not mean only to Kaitlynn but she seems to focus most of her hatred towards her because Kaitlynn and this girl used to share a common friend. (That friend has since devoted I guess you would say to Kaitlynn, we love her she is a sweetie). So anyway just wanted to give you a back ground. Kaitlynn came home upset on Friday that this girl was making fun of her and some other girls. She was relentless and would not leave Kaitlynn alone. Now mind you, Jared and I have tried everything to help her through this. We have told her to ignore her, stand up to her, try to befriend her, talk to the teacher, etc. NOTHING has worked for very long. So Kaitlynn and I talked on and off about it all weekend. Finally, on Sunday or Saturday I had a revelation. I was telling Kaitlynn to do everything, but the one thing she should do. I told her about when I was younger and how I would sometimes do like the scriptures said and go into my secret place (my pink closet) and talk to the Lord just like you would talk to you mom or dad. I told her to tell Him her concerns, fears, and ideas and ask for his help. I told her that the answer would come, maybe not right away, but soon, as long as she really was sincere. So Monday morning came and I was expecting the same hesitation about the bus stop but she just bopped out the door. I asked her "Are you going to have a good day?" She sincerely and I really mean that she was serious and sincere. She looked at me and said "Yep I am, I got my answer!" And that was it. I lived in suspense all day long to find out what had happened. When she got home she said she had a great day and I asked her if she could share her answer with me. She said "Heavenly Father told me to just keep being Kaitlynn and that I should love my enemies." That was it! Some days I wish that my line was as directed as my childrens, they are so precious and important to me. They truly have been sent here to teach Jared and I!! I am happy to report she has not had another bad day since then and I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for answering her prayers and mine!! He truly does love his children!!

Happy 5th Birthday Connor!!!

So prepare to be overwhelmed with pics!! I do this mainly for those of you who were so sad to not be there!! We had a great b-day party for Connor on Saturday!! It was a "Rootin' Tootin' good time!" as one of the party members said!! It was our very own western how-down. So I will give the details with each pic...........

This is the sweetest pic of him and you can really see how excited he is! We got him boots for his birthday and it has been hard to keep them off his feet since. We gave them to him before the party so he could be a real cowboy!

These are Connor's friends and our kids. There was about 11 kids there which was more managable than I thought it would be (well maybe that is because I had Grandma, Grandma 2, Tiera, Jared, and one of my young women from church there to help!!). We had hot dogs, baked beans, and chips that we ate in pie tins just like the cowboys did!! We drank Cactus Juice (lime sherbert and sprite) they all thought I really juiced a cactus!

So we had a few games to play with the kids. Here is Jared organizing the Shoot-out!! Surprisingly the best shooter was a little girl!! Way to go!!

We also panned for gold!! Kudos to Jared for going and digging up the softest sand in Moab for the kids to pan through. We had a ton of "gold nuggets" in there for them to find and they all thought that were rich!! It was so cute!

The last game we played was called "Stomp the Snake". They loved it except for Jake who really did not want his snake to get stomped!! Emily Newman won that one and the kids loved chasing her to get the last snake!!

This is just a candid moment of Jakers!! He did not have the best day because he bit a hole in his tongue right before we left for the party. We did not realize it needed stiches until later that night when I talked to my friend who happens to be a dentist. She took him down to the office and her and her husband stiched it up for us no charge. They are awesome!!

Brigs as you can imagine had a blast!! Being at the park all day and eating it was heaven! He loved his cowboy hat and he only had one major biff-it!! He slid down the big kid slide head first and bloodied his nose and lip!! What can you do???

Here is Connor opening his presents!! He was so excited with each one even when he had no idea what it was! It was precious!! The kids were so excited to watch him open the ones that they got him!! His top two of the party were a Bubble Generator (it blows up to 1000 bubbles a minute, why did I not think of that) and a transformer dinosaur (that Brigs has already broke go figure).

He was so pumped about his cake! He wanted chocolate on chocolate and to have horses on it. I did my best to please! It is hard to have b-days without my sweetheart and talented sister-in-law Amanda to make amazing cakes for us!! But it will do!!

Here is a close up of the cake!! It is not leaning it is just the pic I promise!!

So before each kid left, we gave them a real, authentic cowboy root beer!! They thought is was so cool!! So now you feel like you were there. You did not miss a thing!! It was a great party and if anyone needs cowboy ideas just let me know!! Happy Birthday Connor!!!

Yes, it is true!! Shawnee will be a SUNDEVIL!! Asu called on Sunday night and offered her a full-ride scholarship to come and play volleyball for them!! She is on cloud nine! We knew that they would be offering soon and that they had something, but no one thought it would be a full-ride!! We are so excited to watch her play and are proud of her!! She is definately living a dream for all of her siblings! And the most exciting thing of it all is that her head coach is the former BYU women's volleyball head coach! He is an awesome guy and it will be his first year too!! Shawnee and him will be the only members on the team but at least they are not alone!! Congrats Shawnee Bear, we love you!!!

Great Reminder!!

Have you ever thought how easy it would be to live right if your were just around good people. You know the kind you never really meet. No guile, they are selfless, thoughtful, helpful, unassuming, always willing to lift you up when you need a boost, ect. Well I have. A few days ago grandma came home with this quote and it put things in prespective for me so I thought I would share!!

"Surround yourself with sinless people. Associate with children as often as you can."
-Mary Ellen Edmunds

Just a little reminder that they are perfect and we are the ones that mess up everyday!!

Boy Genius'!?!?

Although there have been a few disputations here in Moab as to whether my boys actually have the genius level IQ that I claim................at least they look the part!!! How can you even contest their brilliance????

Mucho take it EAZZZZY!!!

So as you can plainly see my kids are BIG nacho libre fans!! They got these capes from their Aunt Shawnee when she went to Mexico. Jacob has always been very fond of his but just recently Connor decided he liked his. We think they are hillarious!! So enjoy another glimpse into our CHAOS!!

Right here they are yelling "NACHOOOOOOOO!"
Doesn't Connor look intimidating!!!

Jacob is actually the one to watch out for when he has on his mask!! He is way to fast!

A Tribute to Elder Chan the Man!

So this is our tribute to my AWESOME brother!!! He is serving his mission in Tallahassee, Fl on the FSU campus. We miss him so much but love that he has chosen to serve the Lord and set such and amazing example to our children. I realized as I was doing the blog that I do not have that many pics of him. We have so much fun together we must just forget to take pics!! The kids absolutely adore him and cannot wait to pester him again!! But they love to hear his missionary stories and they pray for him to feel the spirit and have a great mission every night. He is such an amazing person and we love him with all our hearts so enjoy the pics! For those of you who know Chan he is with his second companion right now and the new companion was a greenie!! So that is right, Chan was a trainer on only his second companion. He is staying humble and knows that the Lord is bound and determined to mold him into something more than he has planned himself!! If anyone wants his email just let me know!! He loves to hear from friends and family. Oh, by the way, he has only been hit by a car once so far so we think he is doing great considering his track record!!!!